History

DICOM® is a standard for communication of medical imaging information. Selected highlights of it’s history are shown below:

1980

In the beginning… it was very difficult for anyone other than manufacturers of computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices to decode the images that the machines generated, or to print them.

1990

1993

The third version of the standard evolved to use local area networks like Ethernet by layering the medical image protocols on top of general networking protocols (TCP/IP). The name was changed to DICOM (Digital Imaging and COmmunications in Medicine), and published as NEMA Standard PS3.